BioConcepts

tree of lifearbor vitae (lat.); Baum des Lebens (ger.)

• A diagram exhibiting the genealogical relations between all living beings under the form of a tree.  
  category phylogenesis

  1819

  Schon längere Zeit sammle und arbeite ich daran, einen solchen Baum des Lebens, einen Stammbaum der organischen Welt zu construiren

  Leuckart, F.S. (1819). Zoologische Bruchstücke, vol. 1: 7.

  1837-38

  Would there not be a triple branching in the tree of life owing to three elements air, land & water, & the endeavour of each one typical class to extend his domain into the other domains, and subdivision three more, double arrangement. —

  if each main stem of the tree is adapted for these three elements, there will be certainly points of affinity in each branch
  A species as soon as once formed by separation or change in part of country repugnance to intermarriage increases it settles it

  ؟ We need not think that fish & penguins really pass into each other. —
  The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead; so that passages cannot be seen.

  Darwin, C. (1837-38). Notebook B. In: Barrett, P.H. et al. (eds.) (1987). Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836-1844, 167-236: 176-7 (B 23 - B 25).

  1859

  As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.

  Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species: 130.

  1993

  the tree of life becomes a net of life

  Hilario, E. & Gogarten, J.P. (1993). Horizontal transfer of ATPase genes – the tree of life becomes a net of life. Biosystems 31, 111-119.

  1999

  From comparative analyses of the nucleotide sequences of genes encoding ribosomal RNAs and several proteins, molecular phylogeneticists have constructed a "universal tree of life," taking it as the basis for a "natural" hierarchical classification of all living things.

  Doolittle, W.F. (1999). Phylogenetic classification and the universal tree. Science 284, 2124-2128: 2124.